It’s official: GE to quit Fort Edward late next year

General Electric Co. notified employees Thursday that it will go ahead with its decision to close the capacitor manufacturing plant it operates in Fort Edward had shift production to what it describes as a new manufacturing center of excellence in Clearwater, Fla. The move will happen sometime after September 2014.

GE said it is making the move to remain competitive, and said the Fort Edward plant had lost money for several years.

The 200 workers at the plant offered a package that would have cut 20 of the 177 union jobs while seeking $25 million in public funding to pay for new equipment and technology. But GE declined to accept the proposal.

“The proposal submitted by the union fell well short of the savings and efficiencies that would be generated by the proposed move to Clearwater — savings that are critical to the future of the business,” the company said Thursday.

“The decision is not a reflection on the diligent efforts of our Fort Edward employees, who have worked with us to make the business more competitive,” GE said in a statement. “Regrettably, those efforts have not delivered the cost reductions needed to position the business for the future.”

GE likely will save up to 24 percent in wage costs with its move to Florida, according to data from the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. A machinist in the Glens Falls metropolitan area earns on average $44,190 a year, while in the Tampa metro that includes Clearwater the same job pays $36,360.

GE likely will see savings in everything from energy costs to taxes as well.

For Fort Edward, the closure will take 200 relatively high-paid jobs out of the economy. Workers there averaged about $50,000 a year, with a total payroll that can top $12 million annually, accounting for more than $35 million in economic activity in the county, according to the union that represents the workers, Local 332 of the United Electrical, radio and Machine Workers of America.

“GE remains committed to the Capital Region where we have more than 7,000 employees,” GE said. “In the last several years, GE has created more than 1,600 new jobs, invested nearly half a billion dollars, and h ired more than 450 manufacturing employees locally.”

2 Responses

Private industry is all about profit and keeping the stockholders happy and as a result the future is not cast in concrete. That’s the way it works in the good old USA. Unfortunately, the same will happen in Malta some day in the not too distant future and the good citizens of that community had better plan accordingly.